Representative Beverly B. Byron, D-6th, has introduced legislation to permit federal employees diagnosed with terminal illness to be given the option of collecting their lump sum annuity.
As part of the budget package passed last October, Congress elected to suspend the lump sum annuity option for five years, beginning December 1990. A provision to the act allowed terminally ill employees to collect the lump sum, provided the employee met the age and service requirements forfull-service retirement.
Byron's bill will allow terminally ill federal employees who havehad to retire from service without meeting the age and service requirements for the lump sum annuity to be given the option to collect their full annuity in two equal payments.
"For a terminally ill employee who is not retirement age, the exception to the lump sum suspension Congress passed last year is of no value," Byron said. "The employee has accrued benefits during his employment, but because of the full-service requirement, he cannot collect them at a time he needs them most."
The Office of Personnel Management estimates that from 1988 to 1989, about 400 federal employees filing for retirement disability died within the two-year period.
A terminal illness is definedas a medically confirmed prognosis in which life expectancy is 18 months or less.
LIBRARY TO RECEIVE MONEY
Carroll County's public library expects to receive money to build up its collection of health reference books.
The money -- to be provided through the federal Library Services and Construction Act -- will allow board members to purchase the state's recommended core collection of health-related materials as part of the Health Information Project.
"This will allow us to buy materials we might not have been able to afford," said Gail Griffith, the library's assistant director.
Martha M. Makosky, library director, said the money should allow them to complete the collection for each of the county's five library branches.
In other library news:
* Board members approved the purchase of an automated check-signer.
Previously, members had to sign each check individually, including those for payroll.
* Board member Mary Lou Dewey reported on the Maryland Library Trustees meeting, which addressed "Ethnic Sensitivity, Intellectual Freedom and the Public Libraries."
CITY SPLITS IN TWO
WESTMINSTER -- On July 1, the Westminster postal area will add a 21158 ZIP code, splitting 21157 in two.
This new ZIP code will replace 21157 northwest of Bachman Valley Road and Route 31to accommodate the growth in that area.
About 5,000 residences will be affected.
This addition marks the first split for the area.
Change of address cards are available at the Westminster Post Office, 83 E. Main St. Hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays.
Business customers who regularlysend mail to that area are being notified.
Mail will be forwardedto the new ZIP code until July 1, 1992. The Postal Service urges customers to begin using the new ZIP code now.
The change will not affect mail delivery. While carriers are adjusting to new routes, however, customers may receive daily mail earlier or later than usual times.
Information: 876-2944 or 848-4780.
school and park system and the cost of building new facilities.
FEE REVIEW DEBATED
The County Commissioners will consider hiring a consulting firm to evaluat the development impact fees passed in 1989.
The study would cost $31,850, or $35,650 if citizens committee convenes as part of the reviewprocess, said Eugene C. Curfman, director of the Department of Finance.
The money would come from the impact fee fund, Curfman said.
The current impact fee, charged to developers upon receiving a building permit, is $2,700 per single-family home, except in South Carroll, where it is $3,500. The fees are to help finance construction of new schools and parks needed to accommodate growth. The fee is higher in South Carroll to pay for water supply development.
The consultant, Tischler & Associates Inc. of Montgomery County, which did the original study, would evaluate how effective the fees have been and whether they should be changed to accomplish intended goals.
The consultant originally determined that the county could charge a fee as high as $9,800 for single-family homes, based on a formula used to calculate the impact of one new home on the school and park system and the cost of building new facilities.
Developers generally pass on the costs to homebuyers.
Yielding to pressure from developers and citizens who feared the fees would cause home prices to skyrocket, the commissioners passed a considerably lower fee.
Commissioner Elmer C. Lippy Jr. said he is concerned about financing another review.
"We spend the money, get the advice, then we don't take it," he said."Then we spend more precious time arguing over which study is better."
Lippy was not a commissioner when the fees were adopted. They were enacted largely because schools across the county had become overcrowded, forcing the imposition of a two-month moratorium on subdivision approvals.
BUDGET HEARING IS SET
SYKESVILLE -- The Town Council will present a third draft of the fiscal 1992 budget for a public hearing 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Town House, 7547 Main St.
The council also is expected to vote on the budget that calls for a 73-cent property tax rate. The increase of 5 cents from last year will mean the owner of a $134,000 home will pay $391 in town property taxes, plus$1,260 in county property taxes.
Also on the agenda, Mayor Lloyd R. Helt Jr. will make department assignments for the council.
NO DECISION YET
The state Board of Education did not issue a decision last week on an Eldersburg parent's appeal of a Carroll bus stop policy.
Susan Ballas asked the state board in April to overturn the Carroll school board's denial of a waiver to the district's school bus stop policy, which allows one morning and one afternoon bus stop. Exceptions are made for emergencies or parents with consistent work schedules and who need day care elsewhere for their children.
"It's not unusual for them to take this long to issue a decision," said Larry Chamblin, a Maryland Department of Education spokesman.
Chamblin said the state board's busy May agenda, which included the unexpected resignation of State Superintendent Joseph L. Shilling, may have prompted the board to wait until next month to issue a decision. Next month's meeting will be held June 26.
Ballas, a nurse who has a varyingwork schedule, began the appeal process last fall. Her requests for a waiver were denied by the Freedom Elementary School principal, Carroll's director of elementary schools, a superintendent's designee andfinally, the school board.
She sought the waiver to allow her third-grade daughter to get off at another bus stop, one mile from theirhome, two days a week.
ANNEXATION REVIEW UP
HAMPSTEAD -- The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the concept plan for the Widerman housing development near Highfield Estates and a separate petition for annexation from the owner of 21.7 acres adjacent to the proposed development.
The 21.7 acres along Shiloh Road are owned by Thomas Matthews, a Westminster-based developer, and are zoned for agriculture.
If the town honors Matthews request for annexation, he willbe able to build up to 36 homes. However, the actual number will be less, said John T. Maguire II, Matthews lawyer. Without annexation, Matthews would be able to create seven residential lots on the parcel.
The Widerman development will return to the commission after several tries at getting a concept plan approved. The commission has twice asked the developers to return with modified plans.
The 290 proposed homes would be a mix of detached, duplex and condominium housing.
Maguire, who also represents Widerman, said the Matthews annexation would allow the town to extend to Shiloh Road a street already planned for the Widerman development. The extension of that street to Shiloh would alleviate traffic problems, Maguire said.
WOMEN TO LOSE INFORMATION
Women who get family planning services at the Carroll County Health Department also will get less information starting in about 30 days, when a new decision by the U.S. Supreme Court takes effect.
The decision, announced May 23, upholds a federal regulation prohibiting agencies that get federal money from mentioning abortion.
The 1988 regulation had been struck down in lower courts, but was upheld in a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court.
Larry Leitch, deputy health officer for the Carroll Health Department, said the local office will have to wait to receive official guidelines from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
But he said from what he has read of the decision in news reports, the health department will definitely have to change the way it counsels women.
The department receives federal Title X money to provide family planning services to low-income women, although any woman may go there for services.
"What we have been doing in a very low-key way is giving our patients all the alternatives and all the options they have available to them," Leitch said.
Although the department doesn't perform abortions, it has been able to tell women who want them where they may get them.
"We don't push anything," Leitch said. "Now, it looks like within 30 days from now, we'll have to cease talking at all about abortion."
The federal regulations prohibit mentioning abortion as an alternative, even if it isn't recommended. They also prohibit referring a patient to another agency or establishment that provides abortion, even if the patient asks for the information.
"It sounds like it'svery restrictive. It sounds like abortion is out of the vocabulary,"he said. "Obviously, it changes the way we deal with clients. There's no room for a gray area."
LESS TOWN PARKING?
MANCHESTER -- The results of a town-wide parking survey distributed last month could pave the way additional traffic lanes at the intersection of York and Main streets.
While not divulging the results of the survey until the Town Council meets Wednesday night, town officials said the survey could prove useful in determining the status of downtown parking.
The council in coming weeks will decide whether to remove approximately 200 to 300 feet of parking along Main Street in order to provide lanes for traffic to pass left-turning vehicles at York Street.
In other action Wednesday, the council is expected to swear in councilmen John A. Riley and Robert Kolodziejski, who won election during lastweek's election.
The council will be reorganized; officers will be selected and committee assignments will be made.
Riley was appointed to fill the unexpired seat of Earl A. J. "Tim" Warehime Jr. whenWarehime took Elmer C. Lippy Jr.'s mayoral seat. Lippy became a county commissioner.
Kolodziejski was a write-in candidate.
Turnoutfor the election, in the words of the Board of Elections, was "dismal." Fewer than 10 percent of the town's 1,145 voters showed up at thepolls last Tuesday.
SCHOOL PLANS REVIEWED
MOUNT AIRY -- Town planners conducted another round of work last week on the plans for the Twin Ridge Elementary School.
At its regular monthly meeting, members of the town's Planning Commission considered plans for landscapingthe 22-acre site off Route 144 south of town where the school will be built.
The school is scheduled to open in fall 1992 and will have a capacity of 670 students.
The new school is being built to provide relief for the overcrowded Mount Airy Elementary School, which has 831 students.
Also last week, the commission heard suggestions from Town Planner Teresa Merten regarding widths of new streets in town.
Merten suggested the commission consider guidelines that wouldcall for narrow streets and leave more room for parking spaces.
MEETING SET
WESTMINSTER -- The next meeting the task force establishedto assist with redesign of the East Main Street reconstruction project is set for Wednesday.
The group will meet 7 p.m. at the Volunteer Fire Company on Main Street.
The meeting is intended to give citizens an opportunity to comment on preliminary plans that have been designed by state highway planners.